Outpost a Storm Trooper Story
by Den Gigantiske
Summary: A Strom Trooper recounts his last battle in the waning days of the Galactic Civil war on an outpost in the middle of nowhere.
By now everyone in the galaxy knows that the white armor was all but useless. Wasn't great at stopping blaster fire and unless you were a Snow Trooper they weren't particularly great at keeping warm or dry. Rain was the worst, it would get in through all the seems, cracks and tears soaking you to the bone. Plus visibility was a problem during bad weather rain would splatter on your lenses, wiping them was hard with no actual cloth anywhere on out uniforms. The worst was my last fire fight on one of the outposts of Kanjaro.

Kanjaro was a back water world half-way between the Core and Outerrim territories. I was stationed there about a year before the Battle of Endor. Mostly it was used for mining and lumber harvesting. The western most continent was covered in forests. Trees grew well over a hundred feet some of them twenty feet around at the base. Sometimes the trees grew so large and thick we would have to use night vision during day patrols they cast shadows so deep and dark. There weren't any sentient natives to speak of. Most of the more dangerous life forms were wiped out before the lumber teams arrived. Every once in a while a giant fur covered beast would ambush a lumber team deep in the woods. A patrol would be sent out to find it and terminate it. Those instances were few a far between and a welcome break to the constant boredom.

Everything changed once the second Death-Star was destroyed. The Emperor was dead, along with Vader and most of the senior Naval command. Half the Moffs just rolled over to the rebels, others tried to fight. Mostly high command just forgot about Kanjaro, except to strip us of personal and TIE Fighters. We went from having three thousand Storm Troopers to less than a thousand. Command transferred all but a hundred of our TIE fighters to loyal Star-Destroyers. They were kind enough to leave us with an ion cannon to take out capitol ship and some turbo-blaster and photon-torpedo launchers for fighters. Surprisingly it was enough.

It was six months after the Emperor died that a Rebel fleet finally came. The Rebels seized the other three continents of the planet with very little effort. Our corner of this Force forsaken rock they laid siege to for two weeks. Their capitol ships couldn't get to close enough to lay down fire support. Their fighters would get chewed up by the Turbo Batteries, Photon Torpedoes and TIE fighters.

By the time the final push from the Rebels came most of the grunts were itching for a fight. Mostly while the TIE fighters danced with the X-Wings we just stood in the trenches getting soaked by rain. The last night before my outpost fell was the worst. It had been raining for a week straight, the ground had been turned to mud. It was so wet and soft out AT-ST's couldn't move without sinking into it. It was bitter cold to.

I remember there was one kid under my command Mitus who was shivering in the trench.

"Mitus!" I yelled as I jumped into the trench. "Why don't you grab yourself some chow and caf. You've been on watch long enough."

"I...Just Started...My...Shift sir." The poor kid was chattering so bad I could barely understand him.

"Yeah your also freezing and probably sick," I said. "You wont be any use to anyone if you pass out when the Rebels come."

"You...sure...sir?"

"Come on kid get out of here." I said.

The kid climbed out of the trench, shaking some much I had to steady him. As soon as he stood up a bolt of red blaster fire slammed into Mitus's back. Knocking him back into the trench. I ducked down as hundreds of blaster bolts fly though the night, slamming into the concrete structures of the compound and killing at least a half-dozen other Storm Troopers in the trenches.

"Mitus. MITUS!" I shouted shacking the poor kid. I get a hand full of weak grunts out of the kid. "Hold on kid I'm going to get you our of here as soon as I can."

I stood up, first thing I noticed was visibility was shot. There was so much blaster fire going on the it turned the rain to steam. The cloud was so thick that the only targets you could see were the dim flashes of the rebels blaster fire. I fired through the fog of steam towards the flashes of red light. Every once in a while I would here the scream of a shot Rebel feeling a sense of grim satisfaction.

I'd look down at Mitus every once in a while trying to reassure him that help was coming, that I would get him out of here.

"Just hang on kid help is coming." I'd say. The rebels were slowly approaching from the tree line, it was slow going for them. The mud was knee deep in some places as they got closer I could make out vague humanoid shapes through the steam. One of them tossed something into the the trench right at my feet. All I could make out was a vague sphere shape with a blinking red light imbedded in it sinking onto the mud.

"Thermal detonator!" I shout trying to fish the explosive out of the muck. I eventually plucked the metallic sphere out of the much and tossed it over the lumber barricade of the trench just in time for it to explode. I'm knocked off my feet by the blast, landing face down in the muck. I pick myself up despite my ringing ears. My visor was covered in muck I tried wiping in off but I just wind up smearing it all over the place.

"Freeze you sithspit scum!" I hear from something standing above me. I contemplate reaching for my rifle when I heard a wet crunching sound.

"You all right Nale?" I heard someone familiar say.

"Hew?" I say as I took off my helmet. At this point it wasn't worth cleaning it.

Hew was large man like most of the lumberjacks. He pulls me up as much as he dared with blaster fire being exchanged overhead. On of his equally large compatriots was stepping on the chest of the rebel that was holding a rifle on me, chest and pulling an axe out his head.

"Yeah man. We figured you boys could use a hand."

"You should stay in your compound, the Rebels won't touch you guys." One of the first things the Rebels did was drop a bunch of pamphlets advising any civilian personal to hunker down and wait to be liberated. Most of the civilians were smart enough not to talk about politics in earshot in front of the military staff. Still we got to know the men well playing sabacc with them during out off hours, drinking when someone got a bottle Corellian Whiskey in.

"Come on brother you protected us plenty of times." Hew said.

I could hear Mitus groaning. "Well if you want to help lay down some covering fire for me so I can get Mitus out of here."

"You got it brother." Hew say smiling directing his men to their firing positions, laying down a barrage of covering fire while I pulled my injured friend from the trench, staying low to avoid stray blaster fire. I stepped over several bodies lying in the muck and tripped over even more. That damm steam was everywhere worse here than it was in the trenches. The roar of the turbo batteries told me why. Giant burst of green blaster fire tore through the cloud cover above vaporizing the water in the air. Every once in a while I heard a distant explosion like distant thunder, signaling the death of a star fighter.

The medical building was a one floor Duraplastr building with a roof made out of thin sheets of Durasteel. I walk through the automatic doors already there are a couple dozen injured troopers on cot's being attended to by medical droids and white clad medical personnel. I dump Mitus on the closest open cot I can find I looked for the closest nurse, doctor or droid I could find.

"Roxx!" I yelled over to a nurse I was friendly with. She ran over with a floating round black medical droid in tow.

"What happened" she shouted. Her medical uniform was splattered with blood and dirt. Stands of her blonde hair slipping through her mesh cap, there were bags forming underneath her eyes. She hadn't slept right in weeks at that point. No one had.

"Blaster fire to the back." I said, Mitus was still moaning. "It's okay kid were going to get you fixed up now."

"Help me get his armor." She said and I did just that. I unbuckled what I could and she cut off the black under armor. Mitus had dark brown normally. With his wound and the fever he was running it was a sick looking greenish grey.

"By the Force." I said when I saw the the red and black scorched flesh on his back.

"Don't you worry Mitus I've seen far worse." Roxx said, how true it was I still don't know.

"I'm..." Is all Mitus said before he puked and passed out.

"Is he..."

"No," Roxx said. "Just passed out to sick to hurt. What was he going to say?"

"That he was sorry. Poor kid take care of him will you?"

"I always do."

I nodded to her before going out the door. I hooked up with a squad moving towards the trenches. It was slow going. The fog was so thick we couldn't see a meter in front of us and you sank ankle deep into the mud. Unless of course you stepped on the the hard-shell of a dead Storm Trooper or the soft body of a Rebel.

We didn't see the Rebel unit before they were right on top of us. The first man I killed I got lucky, I saw and recognized that he wasn't friendly and pulled the trigger. I put a smoldering hole in his chest then jumped in the mud. I rolled behind a pair of bodies fallen on top of each other. Half my squad was already dead or dying. So were the Rebels all I could hear was blaster fire or men dying. I fired continuously for what felt like forever until I saw an X-Wing falling through the night it's engines burning. I covered my head with my arms and curled up into a ball, waiting to die. I was very surprised when I didn't and horrified when I watched it slam into the Medic Building.

I didn't say anything as it exploded. I ran as hard as I could ignoring the blaster fire hurtling towards me. My legs ached and my lungs burnt as I was sucking in smoke. The fire ate up most of the mist around the medic building. Not there was much left the roof was gone and the windows and door were blown out. Troopers, Medics and droids were running out of the building burning to death, screaming in agony. I fell to my knees weeping I'd like to think because of all my friends dying and not from the smoke, truthfully at that moment I was numb. At least until I heard the shouts of Rebel's behind me.

I'm not sure exactly what happened next. I jumped up and fired at the Rebels. I ran stepping on the bodies of the dead sometimes stepping in the mud and quickly ripping it out of the mud. I fired as I went mowing down rebels where ever I found them. Mostly I was firing at vague shapes and flashes of red blaster fire in the dense steam.

I wound up running all the way back to the trench leaving a trail of dead and dying Rebels behind me. My armor was smoldering from blaster fire in about a half-dozen different places. The trenches were swarming with Rebels fighting Storm Troopers in brutal hand to hand combat. I could just make out a large man swinging what appeared to be an axe into Rebels' chest. As the blade hit the man (who I found out later to be Hew) was cut down by blaster fire. I aimed at the source, when I pulled the trigger my riffles battery pack blew out. I threw it down and charged screaming into the trench. The Rebel open fired missing every shot, until I vaulted over the lip of the trench and blaster bolts slammed into my thigh. I fell onto the rebel into the trench. I sank into the mud grabbing my wounded leg. The Rebel scrambled for his dropped weapon. I called on the last reserves of my fading strength and grabbed it before he could. I pointed it at his face. He was young probably around the same age as Mitus if not younger. I remember the fear in his eyes, the certainty that he was going to die. By the Force one the things I am grateful for is that I never pulled that trigger. Something heavy slammed into the back of my head and I faded into blackness.

I woke up in the brig of a Mon Calamari star cruiser with the worst head ache you could possibly imagine. My outpost the fell within an hour though we gave the Rebels a good fight. They lost two hundred troops in the ground assault and dozens of fighters. Once the outpost was gone though it was all over. The fighters had corridor to attack the Ion cannon. The capital ships could get close enough to destroy the other outposts surrounding it. All and all six-hundred Storm Troopers died plus pilots, engineers and other personal. The survivors were all sent to a POW camp on Yavin IV. I spent only a few months there before I was sent home. I was happy to find out that Roxx survived. She was getting more Bacta Bandages when the X-Wing hit the medical building. We kept in touch over the years, talking about shared nightmares and pains. Until she put a blaster in her mouth.

I guess Roxx's death is why I'm writing this. When you read Galactic history on the civil war all the battles you'll read about are Yavin, Hoth and Endor. All the names you'll read are Skywalker, Palpatine, Solo, Organa and Vader. There will never be holo on Kanjaro about how a young kid named Mitus stood in a soaking trench for a week waiting for the Rebels to come or how a man named Hew jumped into the trench with an axe to save his friends. You wont here about Roxx who patched men up day in and day out or the terrible pain she carried with her when she watched those men burn to death. You wont here how there were good men on Kanjaro doing their duty waiting for the day they could go home and how most never did.

Mostly you'll never here what happens to a Storm Trooper after he is left to the wayside once the war is over alone with nothing but the pain of all the friends he lost. I hope this story about a little outpost on Kanjaro finds other like me and Roxx. I hope you realize you are never alone. Be it Hoth or Kanjaro you have brother in arms out there still who share your pain. That bond doesn't end when the armor comes off.


End file.
